In the course of searching for something else (Old Mother Riley, if you're interested), I came across this snippet of information, regarding Mr Pastry, in Wikipedia. I'm sure there's an exercise in surrealism that could spawn any number of variant manifestations based on this single piece of information:

'He was interviewed for the starring role of the BBC series Doctor Who after the departure of Jon Pertwee, but a disagreement over his interpretation of the role (he wanted to play the Doctor as Mr Pastry) led to no offer being made by the producer, Barry Letts. The role was subsequently offered to Tom Baker.'

Thank you for the reply Hugh. I had consigned this thread to the growing list of also rans, but I am pleased to see that it has legs.

Granted, Old Ma Riley was more forthright, and she would have given those Daleks what for, but I can't help but think that Mr Pastry was hiding a sharp intelligence under his bushel of blunder and incompetence. Old Ma Riley may have packed a wallop, but she never struck me as one who had a firm grasp on the workings of the space-time continuum; Mr P, on the other hand - well, I wouldn't bet against it.